New York, September 20, 2013 -- Moody's Investors Service has today changed the outlook on the Ba1
government bond rating of the Government of Ireland to stable from negative.
Concurrently, Moody's has affirmed Ireland's Ba1 and
Not-Prime ratings.

The key drivers of the outlook change are the following:

1.) The Irish government's progress in restoring solvency
to its public finances, as reflected in the ongoing fiscal consolidation
and Moody's expectation that general government debt will level
off, relative to GDP.

2.) Ireland's diminished susceptibility to renewed loss of
access to financial markets given its progress with reforms and the improvement
of its liquidity position as the end of its multilateral support programme
approaches.

In a related rating action, Moody's has today also changed
the rating outlook to stable from negative for the National Asset Management
Agency (NAMA), which is fully and unconditionally guaranteed by
the Irish government, and affirmed its Ba1/Not-Prime ratings.

RATIONALE FOR OUTLOOK CHANGE

--- PROGRESS IN RESTORING SOLVENCY TO PUBLIC FINANCES

The first driver behind Moody's change in Ireland's rating
outlook is the progress being achieved in restoring the government's
financial solvency, as reflected by the resumption of growth,
albeit modest at present, and ongoing fiscal consolidation.
The rating agency expects the government to re-establish debt-stabilising
primary surpluses in 2014 and for those surpluses to expand subsequently,
resulting in declines in the government's headline debt-to-GDP
ratios as well as improving the affordability of its debt.

Although Moody's believes that Ireland's economic growth is
unlikely to return to its pre-crisis pace, the rating agency
notes that future growth is probably more sustainable in light of the
correction in the country's macroeconomic imbalances, such
as the shift from a large deficit to a surplus in the current account
position. Positive growth is indispensable for the debt dynamics
to turn in a favourable direction. As such, Moody's
expects that the resumption of growth among Ireland's major trading
partners, particularly the UK and the euro area, along with
continued expansion of the US economy will support Irish growth,
relative to its recent lacklustre performance.

The second driver is Ireland's diminished susceptibility to a renewed
loss of access to financial markets and the substantial improvement in
its liquidity position as it nears the conclusion of its multilateral
support programme with the International Monetary Fund (IMF), the
European Central Bank (ECB) and the European Union (EU) at the end of
December. The Irish sovereign has demonstrated its ability to issue
debt into the private markets on various occasions over the past year,
which is a positive sign, even though investors have undoubtedly
derived assurance from the presence of the support programme.

The rating agency also notes that market perceptions about Ireland have
shown little reaction to adverse events that were observed in some of
the other peripheral countries over the past year. In Moody's
view, this is a reflection of the progress that Ireland has made
towards placing its public finances on a sustainable path, restoring
competitiveness and illustrating once again the economy's underlying
dynamism and attractiveness to foreign direct investment. The progress
made implies greater insulation from further shocks to investor confidence
arising from events elsewhere in the euro area.

The government's improved liquidity position reflects (1) the full
pre-funding of 2014 debt rollover needs; (2) the lower deficits
and reduced debt refinancing requirements following the restructuring
of government promissory notes; and (3) the EU's seven-year
maturity extensions on Irish obligations to the European bailout facilities.
The Irish government is also considering the option of obtaining a EUR10
billion precautionary credit line from the European Support Mechanism
(ESM), which would presumably come into effect in 2014. Moody's
expects that the monitoring associated with any precautionary line will
establish Ireland's eligibility to access the ECB's Outright
Monetary Transactions programme, if circumstances require it to
do so.

WHAT COULD MOVE THE RATING UP/DOWN

Upward pressure would develop on Ireland's government ratings and/or
rating outlook if the government continued to comply with its fiscal consolidation
targets, and growth were to resume at a pace that, together
with consistent primary government budget surpluses, would be sufficient
to firmly position the government debt metrics on a downward path and
ensure debt sustainability over the medium to long term.

Conversely, downward pressure would develop on Ireland's government
rating and/or rating outlook if the country's fiscal consolidation
process were to falter to the extent that Moody's projected that
government net debt metrics will increase significantly above their current
level of roughly 100% of GDP. Additional drivers of downward
credit pressure would be an increased risk of contagion to stress elsewhere
in the euro area, or an increase in losses in the banking system
that were expected to be transferred to the government's balance
sheet.

Default history: No default events (on bonds or loans) have been
recorded since 1983.

On 16 September 2013, a rating committee was called to discuss the
rating of the Ireland, Government of. The main points raised
during the discussion were: The issuer's economic fundamentals,
including its economic strength, have materially increased.
The issuer's institutional strength/framework, have materially increased.
The issuer's fiscal or financial strength, including its debt profile,
has materially increased. The systemic risk in which the issuer
operates has materially decreased. The issuer has become less susceptible
to event risks.

The principal methodology used in this rating was Sovereign Bond Methodology
published in September 2013. Please see the Credit Policy page
on www.moodys.com for a copy of this methodology.

REGULATORY DISCLOSURES

For ratings issued on a program, series or category/class of debt,
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review.

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